Unspoken
by Keaalu
Summary: Caution: fluffy robits ahead. Skywarp has a question to ask Pulsar, and definitely needs a little privacy from his wingmates to do it. (Blue AU)


_(Silly, self-indulgent fluff. ^_^ Warp has always seemed inclined to remain the eternal bachelor, in my little AU, but this sprung into my brain while watching a movie over Christmas, and I decided it needed writing.)  
_

 _(The movie was Jurassic World. I have no idea why terrible-dinosaurs-eating-people inspired this.)_

* * *

Like much of Cybertron, Iacon was still fairly derelict – most of the awe-inspiring buildings of the Golden Age lay in sad, quiet ruins, most blackened and broken by war. The little that remained had been thoroughly cannibalised for undamaged components.

…but – again – like much of Cybertron, Iacon's residents were starting to pick up the pieces, and beginning to rebuild. The spindly towers of inanimate cranes dotted the horizon, and a scattering of mismatched lights twinkled from the windows of the buildings below.

Not this one, though. Skywarp had intentionally chosen a rickety-looking tower on the outskirts of the city-state, little more than a shell with most of its interior floors corroded away, the topmost platform reachable only by air.

Private. Quiet. Somewhere unreachable by other grounders, and far enough away that hopefully the rest of the family wouldn't decide he was obviously up to no good and they ought to come looking for him. He was already teetering on the point of chickening out and making up some terrible excuses; last thing he needed was _heckling_.

What he _did_ mostly need was for someone to do the difficult bit for him. And perhaps a scriptwriter.

He dithered in the tower doorway. Perhaps he should have asked TC for advice? Seeing as the blue jet actually had a bit of experience, and wasn't romantically tone-deaf. But that would have involved _asking him_ , and Skywarp figured the fewer people that knew about this, the less likely it'd go Pitwise.

The reason for his fidgety state of mind lounged comfortably in the very centre of the platform, waiting for him, a small half-consumed cube of high-grade close at hand. Pulsar sat far enough out to get a good view of the sky, but not so far that she could see the ground. Even after vorns of cohabiting with Seekers, the bike still hadn't managed to completely shed her fear of heights.

Aurorae swirled along the planet's field lines, fine curtains and columns draping down from above. The otherworldly lights shimmered against her pale enamel, turning her into a strange green ghost out on the platform. Large plaques of her enamel still needed replacing, though, reminding him of their recent misadventure. When they got back to Deixar, he resolved to carry her down the paintshop himself, because those grey patches? Were _seriously_ _bothersome._

Skywarp pursed his lips. Who'd have ever thought that such a weedy, argumentative little Autobot would have wiggled so well into his plating? For all their mutual disrespect, squabbling and semi-competitive sarcasm… they'd just seemed to _mesh_ with each other.

Her recent disappearing act had left him genuinely scared that she was gone forever, and she'd not even been gone for _that_ long. _Not knowing_ had been the worst part. Unable to get a response to comms, or off her locator, or even to be able to spot her? Forced to comb laboriously through the quantum universe to find her? It left him with a small flavour of what it had been like for his family, when he'd disappeared off on his unintentional little jaunt through time.

And made him feel a little more confident of the plan that had been slowly coming together in his head, over the last vorn or two.

 _Hey femme, wanna get sparkbonded?_ really shouldn't be such a difficult question to ask, but something about it put him on edge. He'd look a proper strutless wonder if she said _no_ , too.

He'd been trying his hardest to come up with a nice, convincingly casual way to drop it into conversation – something that'd lead her to think it had been _her_ idea, just in case anyone accused him of going woolly.

Nothing was coming to him, though. And he'd spent the entire journey so quiet, she knew something was up.

"Are you going to stay in that doorway forever?" she asked, at last, not turning around.

He took a second to try and smooth out his field, and rustled around with the small stash of energon they'd brought with them, in a vain attempt to look like he was being busy, not just dithering. "View all right?"

"Well, I can't see the floor, so." She glanced up and back at him, a pleased expression lightening her angular features. "Yes, it's good."

"Excellent." He settled behind her, one long leg on either side, and let her relax back against him. He strummed his fingers lightly across her antennae, smiling when she started to purr, appreciatively.

"So why Iacon, anyway?" she asked, at last.

"There's all the pretty swirly slag in the sky above us, and you're asking why I thought it'd be nice to come here?"

She blew a little raspberry between pursed lips; okay, so she wasn't buying that one.

"…aaand I wanted a bit of peace and quiet? Figured the guys probably wouldn't bother to follow us all the way out here. Don't always want them chiming in on stuff that's meant to be private between us."

She _snorted_ , affectionately. "Since when? You _like_ getting me to glitch my vocaliser when your bros are close enough to hear, because you like to embarrass me."

He _hmm!-_ ed a funny little laugh and mouthed her antennae. "Can't help it if you like being embarrassed."

She gave him a little shove. "So when are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

"There's nothing wrong."

"Riight." She finally looked back up at him, fixing him on her best challenging stare. "You were quiet all the way out here, didn't pretend to drop me even once, and found a nice big platform that I wouldn't have to worry about falling off. I might not be a genius, but this is not normal Skywarp behaviour."

He grunted and glanced away.

"I might be able to help," she chased.

"It's not that. Nothing's _wrong_ , as such,I've just… been thinking about stuff. Made my brain hurt." He let his arms drift slightly around her, and leaned down just enough to rest his chin on the top of her head. "Sucked slag when you went missing."

He felt her little hands come up to rest on his arms. "You're not still fretting about that, are you? I can guarantee you that I won't be making a mistake like _that_ ever again."

"Not so much _that_ part of it." He folded his arms more closely around her and pressed his cheek against the smooth curve of her helm. "I just-… It got me thinking."

Her purr picked up again – soft, reassuring. "Yeah, you said that already. What about?"

He drew in a cycle of cool air. "What we're all gonna do now. I mean, war's over. Properly over, and…" _Get to the point, Warp_. "I figured, maybe we should, you know." He let his fingers drift closer to the centre of her chassis, level with her spark. "I mean, now it's kinda safe? Now I won't put you at risk just by being an ex-'Con with… colourful history."

She covered his hand with both of hers. "Figured we should… what?"

"Do this… 'relationship' thing properly." He winced and hastily added; "I mean if we'd done it earlier, made a proper connection like TC and Lara have… I'd have known where you were and coulda rescued you sooner, right?"

She was quiet for a very long time. Her field prickled against his. She felt… confused? Upset? He wasn't sure how to read her.

 _Definitely_ said the wrong thing. He sighed, subtly, and gave himself a little internal kick for not dropping more hints and figuring out if she was even interested. Probably why she'd never mentioned it before.

"…Squeaky?" he chased, anyway, deflated. "I-… It was just an idea. I mean. It's… no big deal if you don't want to, if-if you think it's stupid."

She remained silent for a few seconds longer. "I don't think it's stupid. I just… want to be clear." Another long pause. "…are you asking me if I want to bond with you?"

He made a noise that didn't really answer the question. "I… guess so?" He wasn't sure if he felt _more_ stupid, now his thoughts were out in the open. He blew out a long sigh of stale exhaust and let his arms go loose. "Okay, I know. Terrible idea. Forget it."

She stood carefully, and turned in the circle of his arms until she was facing him. "Do you mean it?"

He pursed his lips, and for a few seconds refused to meet her gaze.

"…Warp?" she pressed.

He glanced up, reluctantly, to meet muted azure optics and a crooked, affectionate smile that lifted one side of her face. The dwindling ember of optimism in his spark grew a tiny bit brighter.

She leaned closer and let her forehead rest against his, her hands on his shoulders. "Why didn't you just ask me?"

"Because I'm a big stupid ex-Con and I don't do words very well? And I guess I didn't want to have to hear you say 'no'," he replied, sheepishly.

She chuckled – surprisingly, sounding embarrassed, too? "Then we're in the same boat. I was scared you'd say 'no', too. You obviously got brave quicker than I did."

The words took a few seconds to process, but he felt his wings lift, subtly, all on their own. "…wait. _You_ were gonna ask _me_?"

"Yeah." She managed a self-deprecating laugh and looked away, optics brightening. "I just couldn't think of a way to do it that wouldn't make me sound like a complete stuttering idiot."

He let himself lean back in against her, just a little. "…what – like I just did, you mean?"

"You sounded fine." Her hands meandered delicately around to the back of his helm, trailing a pleasant prickle of static electricity behind them. "And it's just because you don't want me getting lost again?"

"Well, of course. Femme, you are slagging hopeless at the whole not-getting-lost thing. I can't _keep_ coming looking for you-"

A small pair of lips brushed lightly across his own, derailing his train of thought.

"Yes," she said, in the silence.

He leaned back a little, so he could focus properly on her face. "Yes… what?"

"Yes, it's a good idea," she said, and her nose wrinkled slightly in a small, knowing smile. "I hate getting lost."


End file.
